Approaches described in this Background section may include approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Internet based grocery shopping systems may make it convenient for users to purchase perishable items, such as fruits, vegetables, flowers etc., but suffer from various disadvantages. A first disadvantage has to do with customer preferences, as when a customer visits a grocery store and makes grocery purchases, the customer is able to make his/her selection based on an evaluation of the perishable items. The customer may, e.g., evaluate weight, price, ripeness, bruising, size, smell and other physical attributes of the perishable items. In the case of Internet grocery shopping, customer is unable to make such an evaluation, and may end up perishables that are useless for their intended purpose (e.g., avocados that won't ripen for a few days when the consumer wants to use them tomorrow). Another disadvantage with Internet based grocery shopping is that the customer has to make the purchase by specifying either weight (e.g., 2 lbs of potatoes) or size (e.g., 3 small potatoes). It can be hard to judge for the customer just how much he/she will end up, who thus, may end up surprises in their grocery box. Another reason is the cost, as consumers may not wish to pay for steep delivery fees. For at least these reasons, shopping for groceries in a brick-and-mortar retail store (“store”) is desirable.
However, shopping in stores is undesirable for consumers for other reasons, mostly to do with time. Finding items can be time-consuming, especially as stores frequently change aisle locations. Check-out lanes tend to be long and frustrating for consumers. For busy shoppers, shopping for repetitive stock-up non-perishable items (e.g., toilet paper) can be a disliked chore and annoying problem.
There is thus a need to satisfy consumer demand for groceries and non-perishable items in-store through new technologies and delivery systems that save time.